This study analyzes the social construct of female virginity in the Turkish context and the role of medical and legal institutions in this construction process. The construct of virginity supports patriarchal control of women's bodies and sexualities by limiting female sexuality to heterosexual relations within the male-dominated institution of marriage. The practices of virginity examinations, virginity restoration surgeries, and the alternative medical treatment of imperforate hymen constitute the mechanisms by which medical and legal institutions turn the social construct of virginity into a physical reality. By analyzing these practices, this thesis demonstrates how the institutions of medicine and law reinforce and perpetuate male control of female bodies and sexualities in Turkey by elevating virginity to the status of a medical and legal fact.

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